The Bethel Select Board has been warning its residents for a few years now about the sorry state of its town pool.
The fiberglass swimming pool has suffered a number of leaks and cracks in the 35 years since it was installed.
When Town Manager Therese Kirby inspected a concrete patch to the foundation this spring, it was cracked and compromised, and so she made the decision not to open the pool this season.
At a recent select board meeting, Kirby said it could be another four years or so before Bethel is able to come up with enough money to install a new pool.
“We’re going to build a town garage. We’ve got another phase for our water project,” she said. “And for the whole time we want to give everybody everything that they want, but we have to make it affordable for you all to live here.”
It could cost more than $800,000 to replace the pool, which would require a townwide bond vote.
And until Bethel figures out if it wants to invest that kind of money in a pool, residents of the Windsor County town will have to find other places to swim.
“I just really worry,” Bethel resident Rachel Loseby said at the meeting. “My concern is for those families who don’t have transportation or financial means. I worry about those families slipping through the cracks.”
Bethel is far from the only Vermont town struggling to maintain its aging infrastructure while trying to limit the burden on taxpayers.
Municipalities are balancing skyrocketing road and transportation costs, law enforcement and public safety needs, and staffing shortages.
And recreational facilities, like public parks and swimming pools, more often than not fall to the bottom of that list.
Last year, voters in Berlin rejected an $825,000 bond for a new four-season recreation center.
And in Brattleboro, a plan to replace the town’s pool, which could cost more than $10 million, is on hold while the town faces a rising tax rate, and pushback from some residents to reduce spending.
“At this time it’s on hold because there are other bigger projects happening throughout the town,” said Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Director Carol Lolatte. “The ticket price is pretty high, so we’re going to revisit the project and see if we can make adjustments to bring that price down.”
The Brattleboro pool has had a host of mechanical and structural issues that have led to multiple closures over the past few years.
“We’ve had repairs and we’ve had to do some Band-Aid patches to get through the summers,” Lolatte said.
Lolatte expects the pool to remain open this summer and hopes to bring a less expensive proposal for a new facility to voters at town meeting next year.
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Similar conversations are happening in Swanton, South Burlington and Waterbury.
In Montpelier, the town identified a parcel of land for a new recreation area, but is now moving forward with a housing project on the site.
“Currently the City Council is focused on the housing component of the plan,” said Montpelier City Manager Kelly McNicholas Kury. “A future wellness and rec center is not precluded on the site in the future, but it is not the current focus of the council’s planning.”
Other towns have been able to muster the resources to expand their recreational offerings.
Colchester last year opened up a new recreation center after debating the plan for more than 20 years.
The Chittenden County town spent almost $16 million on the project, which was paid for with money from its local option tax.
